How does interbreeding work in your campaign?

[Jon_Dahl]

Well I start with D&D.
For it seems a bit odd that only half-orcs, half-orcs, half-ogres and very few half-breeds are in the core rules. I'm not talking about 3rd party material.

For some reason orc/ogre-hybrids are well thought out, but otherwise I'm left with several questions.
Deep gnome/rock gnome?
Gnome/dwarf?
Half-elf/half-orc?
Halfling/human?
Hobgoblin/human?
Bugbear/hobgoblin?
Duergar/dwarf?
Drow/high elf?
Lightfoot halfling/deep halfling?

I'm aware of the Book of Half-Breeds, but still I wonder what races should be able to interbreed and what shouldn't? Should you also limit the number of half-breeds or get "out of control"?

 

[Heathen72]

Well, Um, how does one go about this...

Firstly Mummy and Daddy like each other very much. They...

Hmm, hang on, I don't want to offend Eric's Grandmother. I will leave it to the Goodies to show you how it's done. Decently.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oWaIdhkGx0]YouTube - ‪Gender Education.mp4‬‏[/ame]

I acknowledge things might be different in your world, YMMV and all, but I like to keep the breeding part pretty simple.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Human - Elf or Elf - Human: Sterile hybrid

Orc - Human or Human - Ork: Fertile hybrid (different breeds, same species)

Orc - Elf or Elf - Orc : Sterile hybrid, most often put to death by either parent (New World has dark elves, not standard elves, think Aztecs.)

Human - Halfling or Halfling - Human: Human. Two of half-human/halfling have a 25% chance of breeding a halfling. (Halflings are human, with a double recessive)

Dwarf - Human or Human - Dwarf: Nothing, not interfertile

Dwarf - Orc or Orc - Dwarf: Ditto

Dwarf - Elf or Elf - Dwarf: Ditto

Human/Orc/Elf - Ogre or vice versa: Nada

Dwarf - Ogre or Ogre - Dwarf - two different types of sterile hybrid, but only in theory - in the entire history of the world this has never happened.

Dwarf - Gnome or vice versa: Children raised as dwarfs are dwarfs, children raised as gnomes are gnomes - differences are social and dietary.

Outsiders: Either Every or None, depending on whether the outsider is created to breed.

Fey: Can breed with anything, but seldom do.

Dragon: Dragons only, excepting outsiders and fey.

Aberration: Ewwww! This ain't a hentae!

The Auld Grump

 

[howandwhy99]

It may be something of a joke, but species exist through at least a small degree of inbreeding. Interbreeding between species is possible to the degree each shares reproductive compatibility with the other.

In a fantasy game where interbreeding is important, begin with a solid idea of what you mean. Here's the wikipedia link for Species, for a start.

D&D doesn't really use race to refer to race like we do for humans. Sub-races (like all those elves who breed like rabbits ) is probably more appropriate, but it is uncommon enough for human races to be differentiated in RPG settings and that's for the best IMO.

In terms of interbreeding between the intelligent or sentient races in a campaign world (i.e. PC races), I suggest working out a genealogy. I mean, this will be fairly long term historically speaking, but it should include branches from common ancestors. Dwarfs and elves may share a common one (though you may not want to tell them).

Half-races are pretty easy. If the races are "genetically" compatible due to common ancestry, or however you account for their make up in your game, then they can breed young together. Perhaps you even want to come up with percentages of offspring genotype (being your own Gregor Mendel).

My own system and maps are, of course, a puzzle for my players to figure out for themselves, so I won't post them. But D&D has some fairly built-in racial types what with monsters by name, type, humanoids, demi-humans and all.


EDIT:
Gygax already thought of this stuff long ago. Human and demi-humans and humanoids share some eerie similarities. Then there are all those goblinoids out there. And then, when you think about how Ogres are really a type of Giant, one can suss out that he had formally or informally a genealogy in mind.

Don't forget about "unnatural" species formation too. Demons have crazy amounts of interchangeable parts from the DMG appendix. Plus, the rationale that Magic-Users have been experimenting with creating monsters for many years is supposed to explain a lot of the goofier creatures (owlbears anyone?)

If you don't go strictly fantasy, non-organic species formation is also possible given hard AI sentient machines (now that's a Mac vs. PC commercial I'd like to see).

 

[RainOfSteel]

In a straight D&D game milieu, or in a published setting, I stick to the hybrids given. Hybrid types not listed are not available.

In my homebrew milieus, I tend to forbid any hybrids of any kind that are not expressly the result of powerful and sophisticated deliberate divine or magical interference.

Why? Because members of different species cannot produce children with each other on their own. How many games do we have where all the other species, plants, animals, you name it, in the milieu can all interbreed to produce hybrids? What's a cat-dog combination? What's a horse-pig combination? What's a giraffe-hippo combination? Elephant-mouse? Kudzu-poison ivy? Beholder-hamster? Green slime-pigeon (look out!). It's laughable.

Hybrids in my homebrew milieus that exist due to interference are surpassingly rare and are the subject of either curiosity, for everyone remembers them, or fear and/or hatred due to prejudice.

While I doubt Tolkien was the one who first came up with this idea, I blame him for popularizing it.

 

[Aeolius]

Green slime-pigeon (look out!). It's laughable.

Umm... you do know that pigeons are the offspring of sewer rats and escaped canaries, right?

I take the opposite approach.. crossbreeding critters is fun! What happens when a half-ogre troll and half-troll ogre have a baby? One PC in my game is the daughter of a salt hag and triton. Salt hags, in turn, are the daughters of night hags and sea elves. It's wondrously confusing.

 

[howandwhy99]

crossbreeding critters is fun! .

This alone is why the TMNT RPG sold every copy.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Mutation...

Okay, this is going to sound different. You know how, I say world-myth this and world-myth that, same thing here but I do try and keep things in family groups (not the right phase).

Goblins, Orcs, & Hobgoblins are in the same family group. Goblins are basicly orc kids, born and able to make it in a fantasy world own their own. Orcs don't inter-breed.

Humans and Elves are of the same group and can inter-breed.

 

[Corathon]

Well I start with D&D.
For it seems a bit odd that only half-orcs, half-orcs, half-ogres and very few half-breeds are in the core rules. I'm not talking about 3rd party material.

For some reason orc/ogre-hybrids are well thought out, but otherwise I'm left with several questions.
Deep gnome/rock gnome?
Gnome/dwarf?
Half-elf/half-orc?
Halfling/human?
Hobgoblin/human?
Bugbear/hobgoblin?
Duergar/dwarf?
Drow/high elf?
Lightfoot halfling/deep halfling?

I'm aware of the Book of Half-Breeds, but still I wonder what races should be able to interbreed and what shouldn't? Should you also limit the number of half-breeds or get "out of control"?

In the real world (as opposed to fantasy) different species generally can't interbreed, or (if the species are closely related) the offspring is sterile. I limit the crossbreeding possibilities in my game accordingly. Of the ones that you listed above, I'd allow deep gnome/gnome, duergar/dwarf & drow/high elf. In each case, the different subraces are not different species IMO. I'm not sure what a "light foot halfing" or "deep halfling" is, but a crossbreed between halfling subraces ought to be possible. Bugbear/hobgoblin I'd allow as a sterile crossbreed like a mule. Thumbs down to human/hobgoblin crossbreeds. IMC, gnomes are an offshoot of the dwarves, so such a mating might be fruitful.

Many such crossbreed would never (almost) happen due to customes, mores, & racial animosity, of course.

 

[Celebrim]

I don't have exactly the same standard species, but in general:

Dragon + Anything = ?
Outsider + Anything = ?
Deity + Anything = ?
Fey + Anything = ?
Fey + Elemental = Genie
Genie + Deity = Giant
Human + Elf = Half-Elf
Human + Goblin = Half-Goblin
Fey + Giant = Troll
Goblin + Giant = Ogre
Human + Giant = Hill Giant

While I'm thinking about it, some unknowns in the campaign world:
Drow(!) + Goblin = Theoretically possible, but no reliable data on Drow as subspecies for thousands of years. Likely result would be something like a Gnome.
Elf + Gnome(!!) = Theoretically possible, but Gnomes have been extinct for nearly 10,000 years. Likely result would be bizarre and novel (probably similar in appearance to WoW Dark Elves.)
Gnome(!!) + Dwarf = Theoretically possible, but Gnomes have been extinct for nearly 10,000 years. Could possibly be origin of existing Forest Dwarf subspecies.

Hybrids:
Half-Elf + Human = 75% Elf-blooded Human, 25% Half-Elf
Half-Elf + Half-Elf = 25% Human-blooded Elf, 50% Half-Elf, 25% Elf-blooded Human
Half-Goblin + Human =75% Goblin-blooded Human, 25% Half-Goblin
Half-Goblin + Half-Goblin = 25% Human-blooded Goblin, 50% Half-Goblin, 25% Goblin-blooded Human
Half-Elf + Half-Goblin = Theoretically possible, but no historical examples. Likely 25% Goblin-blooded Half-Elf, 25% Elf-Blooded Half-Goblin, 25% Elf-Blooded Human, 25% Goblin-Blooded Human.